Method and system for maintaining high reliability logical connection

ABSTRACT

A method and system for maintaining a high reliability logical connection between hosts employs adaptive transparent pinging, clone blocking and bandwidth leveling to realize improvements in the areas of connection status verification, security and bandwidth management. In adaptive transparent pinging, a ping interval that defines a frequency at which ping messages are transmitted from an initiating host to a receiving host to check connection status is dynamically regulated based on data indicative of the reliability of a connection. In clone blocking, the receiving host verifies that a new connection that appears redundant is a re-established connection from the initiating host rather than a cloned connection. In bandwidth leveling, data bursts pending on initiating hosts that exceed a predetermined size are scheduled for transmission to receiving hosts.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to network connection maintenance and,more particularly, to a method and system for maintaining a highreliability logical connection.

Many client-server and peer-to-peer software applications require alogical connection to be maintained between hosts over an oftenunreliable heterogeneous network topology such as the Internet. Thisrequirement presents a problem in that intermediate networking elements,such as firewalls, can block connection requests and data traffictransmitted on logical connections. Additionally, an undetected loss ofconnectivity can occur at any time due to a hardware or software failureon or between intermediate networking elements, or due to severecongestion.

The problem of a firewall blocking connection requests and data traffichas sometimes been addressed by opening the firewall to allow connectionrequests and data traffic having specific identifiers, for example,particular Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and Transport ControlProtocol (TCP) port numbers. However, opening the firewall to suchconnection requests and data traffic leaves the hosts vulnerable tocloned connections initiated by cloned processes and rogue computersthat spoof identifiers to gain access to the hosts and oftentimes infectthem with malicious code.

The problem of undetected connectivity loss has sometimes been addressedthrough “keep alive” messaging. For example, some TCP implementationshave one host poll another host by sending a “keep alive” message to thepolled host after a connection has been idle for an idle connectioninterval. If the polled host fails to acknowledge the “keep alive”message within an acknowledgment interval, the connection is presumed tohave been lost. While useful, known “keep alive” messaging protocolshave generally not taken into account the reliability of the connectionwhen setting the idle connection interval, resulting in connectionstatus checks that have often been more or less frequent than warranted.Moreover, TCP “keep alive” messaging requires use of a specificcommunication protocol, namely TCP, between the hosts.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention, in a basic feature, provides an improved methodand system for maintaining a high reliability logical connection betweenhosts. Improvements are realized in the areas of connection statusverification, security and bandwidth management.

In one aspect, the present invention provides improved connection statusverification through adaptive transparent pinging. In adaptivetransparent pinging, a ping interval that defines a frequency at whichping messages are transmitted from an initiating host (hereinafter“initiator”) to a receiving host (hereinafter “recipient”) to checkconnection status is dynamically adjusted based on data indicative ofthe reliability of a connection, resulting in a methodology that whenjudiciously applied strikes an appropriate balance between the competinggoals of prompt detection of connectivity loss and bandwidthconservation. In some embodiments, the ping interval is adapted to dropquickly as a connection becomes less reliable, but never falls below aminimum so as not to consume too much bandwidth; and is adapted to riseslowly as a connection becomes more reliable. Moreover, in adaptivetransparent pinging, ping messages include data indicative of thecurrent ping interval, allowing the recipient to determine the likelystatus of a connection even if deployed in a network topology where afirewall or proxy inhibits the recipient from pinging the initiator.Additionally, adaptive transparent pinging can operate independently ofTCP.

In another aspect, the present invention provides improved securitythrough clone blocking. Adaptive transparent pinging may result in atemporary state where the initiator has detected a loss of connectivitybut the recipient has not detected the loss of connectivity. This canprompt the initiator to re-establish a new connection that whenre-established appears redundant to the recipient. In clone blocking,the recipient verifies that the new connection that appears redundant isa re-established connection from the initiator rather than a clonedconnection initiated by, for example, a computer executing a backupprocess or a rogue computer that has spoofed identifiers in order togain access to the recipient. If the recipient is unable to verify thatthe new connection that appears redundant is a re-establishedconnection, the recipient may take a security action, such as droppingthe new connection, dropping the new and old connection, notifying anadministrator and/or disabling an account. In some embodiments, cloneblocking is achieved by transmitting from the initiator to the recipienton a first instance of a connection a random session number, applying acommon scheme on the initiator and the recipient to independentlygenerate on the initiator and the recipient a second session numberbased on the random session number, transmitting from the initiator tothe recipient on a second instance of the connection the second sessionnumber generated on the initiator and comparing for a match on therecipient the second session number generated on the initiator with thesecond session number generated on the recipient. Once a match is found,the recipient can safely presume that the second instance of theconnection is a re-established connection from the initiator, and not acloned connection.

In another aspect, the present invention provides improved bandwidthmanagement through bandwidth leveling. Certain software applicationsrequire a recipient to maintain high reliability connections with manyinitiators simultaneously. Without proper bandwidth management, datatraffic transmitted on these simultaneous connections can cause severecongestion and even loss of connectivity. In bandwidth leveling, databursts pending on initiators that exceed a predetermined size must bescheduled for transmission to the recipient. In some embodiments, whenthe initiator has a data burst over a predetermined size to transmit tothe recipient, the initiator sends to the recipient a transmissionrequest indicating the size of the data burst. The recipient consults aschedule of data bursts and based on the schedule generates atransmission profile for the data burst and sends a transmission grantto the initiator including the transmission profile. The initiatortransmits the data burst to the recipient in accordance with thetransmission profile.

These and other aspects of the invention will be better understood byreference to the following detailed description taken in conjunctionwith the drawings that are briefly described below. Of course, theinvention is defined by the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a communication network in some embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 2 shows an adaptive transparent pinging method performed by aninitiator in some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 3 shows a connection status check method performed by a recipientin some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 4 shows a clone blocking method performed by a recipient in someembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 5 shows a bandwidth leveling method performed by a recipient insome embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In FIG. 1, a communication network in some embodiments of the inventionis shown. The network includes initiating hosts (hereinafter“initiators”) 110 and receiving hosts (hereinafter “recipients”) 120communicatively coupled over the Internet 130. Initiators 110 andrecipients 120 may consist in one or more desktop and handheldnetwork-capable electronic device types that execute software and/orfirmware, such as personal computers, workstations, servers, mobilephones, personal data assistants (PDA), gaming consoles andmultifunction printers, to name a few. Initiators 110 are responsiblefor establishing with recipients 120 over Internet 130 logicalconnections to support client-server or peer-to-peer softwareapplications, for example. In some embodiments, logical connections arebidirectional connections that are established between an initiator anda recipient and maintained until such time as all messages to beexchanged between application software executing on the initiator andapplication software executing on the recipient have been exchanged. Insome embodiments, logical connections are TCP/IP connections. Whilethree initiators 110 and three recipients 120 are shown in FIG. 1 forsimplicity, the number of initiators 110 and recipients 120 will vary byimplementation. Moreover, a host may simultaneously serve an initiatorfor one or more logical connections and a recipient for one or moreother logical connections. In addition to client-server or peer-to-peersoftware applications, initiators 110 and recipients 120 have one ormore software programs executable by a processor and associated memoryfor performing the initiator and recipient functions, respectively,described herein.

Turning to FIG. 2, an adaptive transparent pinging method performed byan initiator in some embodiments of the invention is shown. Adaptivetransparent pinging is performed by an initiator to verify that alogical connection remains active after an idle interval in which nomessages have been received on the connection. In adaptive transparentpinging, at a frequency defined by a current ping interval, an initiatorsends to a recipient a ping message carrying the current ping interval.The initiator receives from the recipient an acknowledgement messageresponsive to the ping message within an acknowledgement interval orelse drops and re-establishes the connection. Advantageously, in adeparture from convention, the initiator also dynamically regulates theping interval based on the reliability of the connection. Moreover,while dynamic adjustment of the ping interval would normally prevent therecipient from determining an expected time of arrival of the next pingmessage to assess connection status, inclusion of the current pinginterval in each ping message advantageously allows the recipient todetermine an expected time of arrival and likely connections status.

Consider, for example, a logical connection established betweeninitiator 110A and recipient 120A. Upon establishment of the connection,initiator 110A enters a state where it awaits a next event (210). Eventsinclude receipt of a message from recipient 120A and expiration of aping check timer. If the next event is receipt of a message fromrecipient 120A, initiator 110A sets the message time (T) to the currenttime (t) (215) and returns to the waiting state (210). In this regard,pings are only sent when recipient 120A has not been heard from for adefined interval. Setting the message time (T) to the current time (t)effectively postpones the next ping.

If the next event is expiration of a ping check timer, the elapsed time(E) is set to the current time (t) minus the message time (T) (220) andthe elapsed time (E) is compared with the current ping interval (P)(225). If the elapsed time (E) is less than or equal to the current pinginterval (P), the time for the next ping has not yet arrived andinitiator 110A returns to the waiting state (210). If, however, theelapsed time (E) is greater than the current ping interval (P), the timefor the next ping has arrived. In that event, initiator 110A sends aping message including the current ping interval (P) to recipient 120Aand sets an acknowledgment timer (230). In some embodiments, the pingmessage is carried in a Hyptertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) header of aTCP/IP packet.

If an acknowledgement message is received from recipient 120A before theacknowledgement timer expires, that is, within the acknowledgementinterval, the connection is still active. Since receipt of anacknowledgement message is indicative of reliability of the connection,initiator 110A considers whether an increase in the current pinginterval (P) is warranted. Initiator 110A increments by one the totalping count (n) and compares a current ratio of bad pings (B) to totalpings (n) with a ping interval increase threshold (i) (240). If theratio (B/n) is greater than or equal to the threshold (i), theconnection is considered not sufficiently reliable to increase thecurrent ping interval (P). Initiator 110A thus sets the message time (T)to the current time (t) (215) and returns to await the next event (210)without increasing the current ping interval (P). If, on the other hand,the ratio (B/n) is less than the threshold (i), the connection isconsidered sufficiently reliable to increase the current ping interval(P). In that event, initiator 110A increases the current ping interval(P) using a predetermined algorithm, but without exceeding a maximumping interval (P_(max))(245),

before setting the message time (T) to the current time (t) (215) andreturning to await the next event (210).

If the acknowledgement timer expires before an acknowledgement messageis received from recipient 120A, a loss of connectivity is presumed.Since a loss of connectivity is indicative of unreliability of theconnection, initiator 110A considers whether a reduction in the currentping interval (P) is warranted. Initiator 110A drops and re-establishesthe connection and increments by one the bad ping count (B) and thetotal ping count (n) (250). Initiator 110A then compares the ratio ofbad pings (B) to total pings (n) with a ping interval reductionthreshold (d) (255). If the ratio (B/n) is less than or equal to thethreshold (d), the connection is considered not sufficiently unreliableto reduce the current ping interval (P). Initiator 110A thus sets themessage time (T) to the current time (t) (215) and returns to await thenext event (210) without reducing the current ping interval (P). If, onthe other hand, the ratio (B/n) is greater than the threshold (d), theconnection is considered sufficiently unreliable to reduce the currentping interval (P). In that event, initiator 110A reduces the currentping interval (P) using a predetermined algorithm, but without droppingbelow a minimum ping interval (P_(min)) (260), before setting themessage time (T) to the current time (t) (215)

and returning to await the next event (210).

In some embodiments, stale pings are not used in the reliabilitydetermination. For example, in some embodiments the bad ping count (B)and total ping count (n) account for only the most recent x pings, wherex is a predetermined number such as 100. In other embodiments, pingstime-out from the bad ping count (B) and the total ping count (n) aftera predetermined interval.

In some embodiments, the ping interval increase threshold (i) is 0.1.

In some embodiments, the ping interval decrease threshold (p) is 0.1.

In some embodiments, the predetermined algorithm for decreasing thecurrent ping interval (P) is P=P/2 and the minimum ping interval(P_(min)) is 10 seconds. In these embodiments the current ping interval(P) may be adjusted downward through application of the singularexpression P=P/2+5 seconds. It will be appreciated that this algorithmcauses a rapid decrease in the current ping interval (P) as a connectionbecomes less reliable, while never allowing the current ping interval(P) to fall below a minimum so as not to consume too much bandwidth. Inother embodiments, the predetermined algorithm decreases the currentping interval (P) by subtracting a constant.

In some embodiments, the predetermined algorithm for increasing thecurrent ping interval (P) is P=P+5 seconds and the maximum ping interval(P_(max)) is 1000 seconds. It will be appreciated that this algorithmcauses a slow rise in the current ping interval (P) as a connectionbecomes more reliable, while preventing the current ping interval (P) torise indefinitely. In other embodiments, the predetermined algorithmincreases the current ping interval (P) by a constant multiplier.

In some embodiments, the acknowledgement interval is dynamicallyadjusted based on the elapsed time between transmission of ping messagesand receipt of acknowledgment messages. For example, in some embodimentsthe acknowledgment interval is increased as the average elapsed timeincreases and is reduced as the average elapsed time decreases.

FIG. 3 shows a connection status check method performed by a recipientin some embodiments of the invention. Continuing with the above example,upon establishment of a connection, recipient 120A enters a state whereit awaits a next event (310). Events include receipt of a message frominitiator 110A and initiation of a connection status check. In someembodiments, a connection status check may be triggered by expiration ofa connection status check timer. If the next event is receipt of amessage from initiator 110A, recipient 120A sets the message time (T) tothe current time (t) (315). In this regard, connection status checksdetermine likely connection status by reference to an expected time ofarrival of the next ping message. Setting the message time (T) to thecurrent time (t) effectively resets a timer that may later be comparedwith the expected time of arrival of the next ping message to determinelikely status of the connection. If the message is not a ping message,recipient 120A returns to the waiting state (310). If, however, themessage is a ping message, recipient 120A sets the current ping interval(P) to the ping interval carried in the message (320) before returningto the waiting state (310).

If the next event is a connection status check, the elapsed time (E) isset to the current time (t) minus the message time (T) (325) and theelapsed time (E) is compared with the current ping interval (P) (330).If the elapsed time (E) is less than or equal to the current pinginterval (P), the time for the next ping has not yet arrived andrecipient 120A returns to the waiting state (310). If, however, theelapsed time (E) is greater than the current ping interval (P), the timefor the next ping has arrived. In that event, recipient 120A presumesthat the connection has been lost and sets the connection status todisconnected (335).

In other embodiments, the elapsed time (E) is compared with an expandedping interval that exceeds the current ping interval (P) carried in thelatest ping message received by recipient 120A by a incremental amountto determine whether connectivity has likely been lost. In this regard,the current ping interval (P) on initiator 110A may have expanded by anincremental amount between transmission of the latest ping messagereceived by recipient 120A and the next ping message due to receipt ofan intervening acknowledgement message by initiator 110A. Using anexpanded ping interval that exceeds the current ping interval (P)carried in the latest ping message received by recipient 120A in thecomparison with the elapsed time (E) accounts for this potentialexpansion of the ping interval (P).

FIG. 4 shows a clone blocking method performed by a recipient in someembodiments of the invention. Adaptive transparent pinging may result ina temporary state where an initiator has detected a loss of connectivitybut a recipient has not detected the loss of connectivity. This canprompt the initiator to re-establish a connection that whenre-established appears redundant to the recipient. In clone blocking, adistinct session number is assigned to each instance of a connection toallow the recipient to determine with a high degree of confidencewhether a new connection that appears redundant is a re-establishedconnection from the initiator or a cloned connection from, for example,a backup process or a rogue computer that has spoofed identifiers inorder to gain malicious access to the recipient. If the recipient isunable to verify that a new connection that appears redundant is are-established connection, the recipient adopts an implementationdependent security measure.

To enable clone blocking, a common scheme for updating session numbersis configured on an initiator and a recipient so that the initiator andrecipient can independently generate common current session numbers fromcommon previous session numbers. In some embodiments, the common schemegenerates common current session numbers by incrementing common previoussession numbers by one. In other embodiments, the common schemegenerates common current session numbers by modifying common previoussession numbers in accordance with a common algebraic or geometricprogression other than incrementing by one. In still other embodiments,the common scheme generates common current session numbers by performingcommon bitwise logical operations on common previous session numbers. Instill other embodiments, the common scheme generates common currentsession numbers by performing common table lookups on a common previoussession numbers.

Consider, for example, a new logical connection initiated by a purportedinitiator to recipient 120B. Recipient 120B authenticates the purportedinitiator by verifying a unique certificate, such as a Secure SocketLayer (SSL) certificate, for example, provided by the purportedinitiator, and accepts the new connection (410) if authentication issuccessful. However, such authentication does not preclude thepossibility that the would-be initiator might be a host executing acloned process, such as a backup process, or a rogue computer that hasgained unauthorized access to the SSL certificate. Thus, recipient 120Bconsiders whether the new connection is from the perspective ofrecipient 120B unique or redundant. In some embodiments, recipient 120Bcompares one or more identifiers associated with the new connection withcorresponding identifiers associated with other active connections,determines that the new connection is redundant if there is a matchbetween identifiers associated with the two connections, and determinesthat the new connection is unique if there is not a match betweenidentifiers associated with the two connections. The identifiers thatare compared may include one or more of an SSL certificate and an IPaddress, for example. If the new connection is determined by recipient120B to be unique, upon receipt of a first message from the purportedinitiator on the connection (440), recipient 120B determines whether thefirst message carries a session number (S_(m)) that is valid. In someembodiments, recipient 120B compares a 32-bit string at a predeterminedoffset in an HTTP header of the first message with a range of validsession numbers to determine validity or invalidity. If the firstmessage carries a session number (S_(m)) that is valid, recipient 120Bsets a session number (S_(s)) stored on recipient 120B for the newconnection to the session number (S_(m)) carried in the first message(445) and sends an acknowledgment message to the purported initiatorincluding the session number (S_(m)) (450). If, on the other hand, thefirst message does not carry a session number (S_(m)) that is valid,recipient 120B drops the new connection (455).

Naturally, initiators 110 are configured to include a session number(S_(m)) in the first message transmitted on a new connection that willbe recognized by recipients 120 as a valid session number so thatrecipients 120 will not drop the new connection. In some embodiments,the session number (S_(m)) generated by initiators 110 and carried inthe first message transmitted on a new connection are 32-bit randomlygenerated numbers and recipients 120 are adapted to recognize any 32-bitnumber carried within a 32-bit string at a predetermined offset in anHTTP header of the first message of a new connection as valid. In otherembodiments, the session number (S_(m)) generated and carried in thefirst message of a new connection must fall within a more specific rangeto be recognized by recipients 120 as a valid session number.

If the new connection is determined by recipient 120B to be redundant, astored session number (S_(s)) for the connection already exists onrecipient 120B by virtue of processing an earlier message carrying asession number (S_(m)) transmitted on another active connection havingone or more common identifiers with the new connection. Thus, uponreceipt of a first message from a purported initiator on a newconnection that is redundant (415), recipient 120B applies the commonscheme to determine the next stored session number (S_(s+1)) based onthe stored session number (S_(s)) and compares for a match the sessionnumber (S_(m)) carried in the first message transmitted on the newconnection with the stored session number (S_(s)) and the next sessionnumber (S_(s+1)) (420). If there is a match between the session number(S_(m)) carried in the first message and either the stored sessionnumber (S_(s)) or the next session number (S_(s+1)), recipient 120Bpresumes that the new connection is a re-established connectioninitiated by one of initiators 110, keeps the new connection, drops theother active connection having one or more common identifiers, sets thesession number (S_(s)) stored on recipient 120B for the connection tothe session number carried in the first message (S_(m)) (430) and sendsan acknowledgment message to the one of initiators 110 including thesession number (S_(m)) (430). If, however, there is no match between thesession number (S_(m)) carried in the first message and either thestored session number (S_(s)) or the next session number (S_(s+1)),recipient 120B presumes that the new connection is a cloned connectionfrom, for example, a computer executing a cloned process or a roguecomputer that has gained unauthorized access to the SSL certificate andhas spoofed identifiers in order to gain malicious access to recipient120B. In that event, recipient 120B takes an implementation dependentsecurity action, such as dropping the new connection, dropping the newand old connection, notifying an administrator and/or disabling anaccount associated with the compromised SSL certificate. Recipient 120Bmay distinguish the old connection from the new connection on the basisof different TCP port assignments, for example.

Whenever one of initiators 110 receives from recipient 120B anacknowledgement message carrying a session number (S_(m)), the one ofinitiators 110 knows that recipient 120B has recorded the session number(S_(m)) as the stored session number (S_(s)) Thus, the one of initiators110 applies the common scheme to determine the next session number(S_(m+1)) based on the session number (S_(m)) and sets the currentsession number (S_(m)) to the next session number (S_(m+1)).

FIG. 5 shows a bandwidth leveling method performed by a recipient insome embodiments of the invention. Bandwidth leveling preventscongestion on a recipient that must maintain active logical connectionswith multiple initiators at the same time. Consider, for example, asituation where recipient 120C maintains an active logical connectionwith each of initiators 110A, 110B, 110C. Without implementation of acongestion avoidance scheme, initiators 110A, 110B, 110C. mightsimultaneously transmit large data bursts to recipient 120C causingsevere congestion on recipient 120C that can lead to data loss and evenconnectivity loss. Accordingly, bandwidth leveling is implemented onrecipient 120C to reduce the risk of severe congestion.

In bandwidth leveling, when one of initiators 110 wishes to send torecipient 120C a data burst that exceeds a predetermined size, such as10 kilobytes, the one of initiators 110 must first transmit a request torecipient 120C including the burst size. When recipient 120C receivessuch a request (510), recipient 120C checks a burst schedule thatincludes information indicative of scheduled data bursts pending onother ones of initiators 110 (520). In some embodiments, the burstschedule also includes information indicative of expected ping messagesfrom initiators 110. Based on information from the burst schedule,recipient 120C creates a transmission profile for the requested databurst including a transmit time, peak rate and transmission key, storesthe profile in the burst schedule and sends a grant message includingthe profile and the current time to the requesting one of initiators 110(530). In some embodiments, the transmit time and the current time aredefined in an hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds format and the peakrate is defined in bytes per second.

The requesting one of initiators 110 determines how to transmit the databurst in conformance with the profile in the grant message, for example,segmenting the data burst into multiple packets and schedulingtransmission of the multiple packets. When a burst message is receivedfrom the one of initiators 110 (540), recipient 120C verifies that theburst message includes the transmission key and confirms that the burstmessage is in-profile, for example, conforms with the transmit time andpeak rate stored in the burst schedule. In this regard, recipient 120Cmay use the transmission key included in the burst message to access theprofile, determine whether the burst message is within profile and, ifso, update the profile based on the arrival time of the burst messageand the size of the burst message or the data therein. Then, if theburst message is in profile, recipient 120C admits the data burst (550),whereas if the burst message is out-of-profile, recipient 120C drops thedata burst (560).

In other embodiments, recipient 120C does not verify whether burstmessages are in-profile. In these embodiments, initiators 110 aretrusted to send in-profile burst messages, which substantially reducesprocessing requirements on recipient 120C.

In some embodiments, for example, in high speed networks, the transmittime and the current time definitions include microseconds. In otherembodiments, for example, low speed networks, the transmit time andcurrent time definitions exclude milliseconds.

In some embodiments, for example, in high speed networks, the peak rateis defined in bytes per millisecond. In other embodiments, for example,low speed networks, the peak rate is defined in bytes per minute.

It will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that theinvention can be embodied in other specific forms without departing fromthe spirit or essential character hereof. The present description istherefore considered in all respects to be illustrative and notrestrictive. The scope of the invention is indicated by the appendedclaims, and all changes that come with in the meaning and range ofequivalents thereof are intended to be embraced therein.

1. A method for maintaining a high reliability logical connectionbetween an initiator and a recipient, comprising: transmitting at a pinginterval by the initiator to the recipient ping messages; receiving foran acknowledgement interval by the initiator acknowledgement messagestransmitted by the recipient responsive to the ping messages; anddynamically adjusting by the initiator the ping interval based on acount of transmitted ping messages and received acknowledgementmessages.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating onthe initiator a random session number; transmitting by the initiator tothe recipient on a first instance of the logical connection the randomsession number; applying a common scheme on the initiator and therecipient to independently generate on the initiator and the recipient acommon current session number based on the random session number;transmitting by the initiator to the recipient on a second instance ofthe logical connection the common current session number generated onthe initiator; and comparing for a match on the recipient the commoncurrent session number generated on the initiator and the common currentsession number generated on the recipient.
 3. The method of claim 1,further comprising: transmitting by the initiator to the recipient onthe logical connection a data burst transmission request including aburst size; and transmitting by the recipient to the initiator a databurst transmission grant including a transmission profile.
 4. Acommunication system, comprising: an initiator; and a recipient, whereinat a ping interval the initiator transmits to the recipient pingmessages and for an acknowledgement interval the initiator receives fromthe recipient acknowledgement messages responsive to the ping messages,and wherein the initiator dynamically adjusts the ping interval based ona count of transmitted ping messages and received acknowledgementmessages.
 5. The communication system of claim 4, wherein after eachinstance in which the initiator transmits to the recipient a pingmessage and within the acknowledgement interval does not receive fromthe recipient an acknowledgment message responsive to the ping messagethe initiator drops and re-establishes a logical connection with therecipient.
 6. The communication system of claim 4, wherein the initiatordynamically adjusts the ping interval upward when a ratio of receivedacknowledgement messages to transmitted ping messages exceeds a pinginterval increase threshold.
 7. The communication system of claim 4,wherein the initiator dynamically adjusts the ping interval downwardwhen a ratio of received acknowledgement messages to transmitted pingmessages is below ping interval reduction threshold.
 8. Thecommunication system of claim 4, wherein the transmitted ping messagesinclude the ping interval and the recipient applies the ping intervalfrom the ping messages to determine status of a logical connection withthe initiator.
 9. The communication system of claim 4, wherein theinitiator generates and transmits to the recipient on a first instanceof a logical connection a random session number, wherein the initiatorand the recipient apply a common scheme to independently generate on theinitiator and the recipient a common current session number based on therandom session number, wherein the initiator transmits to the recipienton a second instance of the logical connection the common currentsession number generated on the initiator, and wherein the recipientcompares for a match the common current session number generated on theinitiator with the common current session number generated on therecipient.
 10. The communication system of claim 9, wherein upon findingthe match the recipient transmits to the initiator an acknowledgementmessage including the common current session number.
 11. Thecommunication system of claim 9, wherein the initiator transmits therandom session number in the first message transmitted afterestablishment of the first instance of the logical connection and theinitiator transmits the common current session number generated on theinitiator in the first message transmitted after establishment of thesecond instance of the logical connection.
 12. The communication systemof claim 4, wherein the initiator transmits to the recipient on alogical connection a data burst transmission request including a burstsize, and wherein the recipient transmits to the initiator in responseto the data burst transmission request a data burst transmission grantincluding a transmission profile.
 13. The communication system of claim12, wherein the transmission profile includes a current time, a transmittime, a peak rate and a transmission key.
 14. A communication systemcomprising: an initiator; and a recipient, wherein the initiatorgenerates and transmits to the recipient on a first instance of alogical connection a random session number, wherein the initiator andthe recipient apply a common scheme to independently generate on theinitiator and the recipient a common current session number based on therandom session number, wherein the initiator transmits to the recipienton a second instance of the logical connection the common currentsession number generated on the initiator, and wherein the recipientcompares for a match the common current session number generated on theinitiator with the common current session number generated on therecipient.
 15. The communication system of claim 14, wherein uponfinding the match the recipient transmits to the initiator anacknowledgement message including the common current session number. 16.The communication system of claim 14, wherein the initiator transmitsthe random session number in the first message transmitted afterestablishment of the first instance of the logical connection and theinitiator transmits the common current session number generated on theinitiator in the first message transmitted after establishment of thesecond instance of the logical connection.
 17. The communication systemof claim 14, wherein the common scheme generates common current sessionnumbers by one of modifying common previous session numbers inaccordance with a common algebraic or geometric progression, performingcommon bitwise logical operations on common previous session numbers andperforming common table lookups on common previous session numbers. 18.The communication system of claim 14, wherein at a ping interval theinitiator transmits to the recipient ping messages and for anacknowledgement interval the initiator receives from the recipientacknowledgement messages responsive to the ping messages, and whereinthe initiator dynamically ad lusts the ping interval based on a count oftransmitted ping messages and received acknowledgement messages.
 19. Thecommunication system of claim 14, wherein the initiator transmits to therecipient on a logical connection a data burst transmission requestincluding a burst size, and wherein the recipient transmits to theinitiator in response to the data burst transmission request a databurst transmission grant including a transmission profile.
 20. Thecommunication system of claim 14, wherein the transmission profileincludes a current time, a transmit time, a peak rate and a transmissionkey.